

Howard's Party
Main reference The Settler Handbook by MD Nash
Additional information from South African Settlers
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- Departure London, 13 December 1819
- Arrival Table Bay, Cape Town - 29 March 1820
- Final Port - Algoa Bay, Port Elizabeth - 15 April 1820
(Other parties on this voyage - Damant, Dixon, Morgan)
M.D. Nash 1987 - Settler Handbook
"No. 21 on the Colonial Department list, led by William Howard of Blucher Street, Chesham, Buckinghamshire. a school master 'on the Lancastrian plan', a system of education for the children of the poor that relied on the use of pupil-teachers, with one usher presiding over the whole school. His first application to take out a joint-stock party of 15 men and their families from Buckinghamshire was turned down, and he met this rejection with a desperate appeal to the Colonial Department, backed up by a testimonial to his moral character (which he drafted himself) signed by the curate, overseers, churchwarden and magistrate of Chesham. He stoutly asserted that he was 'prepared to conflict with difficulties of any description, and feared no dangers whatever'. On the strength of the testimonial his party was accepted to fill a late vacancy occasioned by the withdrawal of one Edward Webb Wilson. By this time, several of Howard's people had fallen away, but gaps in his list were filled by four members of a London party led by Thomas Bainbridge of Soho, whose application had been unsuccessful (Bainbridge, Willan, Felton and Niland).
Deposits were paid for 15 men, and the party embarked at Deptford in the Ocean (Not necessarily the ship illustrated above) regular transport, sailing from Portsmouth on New Year's Day 1820, and arriving in Table Bay on 29 March and Algoa Bay on 15 April. Its location on the Blaauwkranz River was named Salem Hills.
William Howard's florid calligraphy and literary style were put to good use in the Albany settlement; he was employed by his fellow-settlers as a professional writer of petitions to government, and much of the correspondence in the colonial records is unmistakably of his composition".
[Bold links are to Geni profiles; other links are to other biographical notes]
Thomas Bainbridge, 39. Tailor.
Wife Elizabeth Harman 38.
Children
John Henry Cadel 24, Tallow chandler.
Wife Sarah Emily Hornblow 28.
Children
George Henry Felton 19. Farmer.
Edward Henry Hanger 30, Carpenter.
Wife Harriet Sophia 26.
Child
Henry Harper 30. Cooper.
Wife Mary ? 37.
Children
- James Harper 14. (Later married Rebecca Thomas of Morgan's Party.)
- Elizabeth Harper 6.
- James Whittaker Barnes 12 (son of Mary Dixon)
- George Barnes 8 (son of Mary Dixon)
Edward Healey 34. Farmer
Wife Mary Powell 28.
George Heath 23. Shoemaker.
William Howard 42. Schoolmaster.
Wife Elizabeth Smith 39.
Children
- John Henry Howard 17,
- William Howard 15,
- Mary Ann Howard 14. (Later married Richard Watson of Gurney's Party.)
- Thomas Howard 10,
- Emily Howard 1.
Edward George Jeffries 12 (in the care of J Watts).
Gad Jeffries 10 (in the care of J Watts). (Later married Eliza Poulton of the same Party.)
Seba Mehrtens 25. Willow cutter.
Wife Ann 24.
John Niland 219. Gardener.
Wife Catherine Collins 25.
John Poulton, 42. Shoemaker.
Wife Ann Heath 35.
Children
- Ann Poulton, 13,
- John Poulton, 11,
- Mary Poulton, 10. (Later married William Leathern of Parkin's Party.)
- Samuel Poulton, 9,
- Eliza Poulton 8. (Later married Gad Jeffries of the same Party).
- Sarah Poulton 6. (Later married John Talbot of Sephton's Party.)"
- Charles Poulton, 5,
- Charlotte Poulton, 3,
- Ruth Poulton, 1.
William Tarr 32, Butcher.
Wife Susannah Burt 35.
Children
- John Tarr 9,
- Maria Tarr 3. (Later married William Bentley of Wainwright's Party.)
- Sarah Tarr 2, (later married Thomas Payne of Liversage's Party)
- Oceanus Tarr (born and died at sea).
John Vaughan 19. Engraver.
James Watts 32. Brickmaker.
Giles Willan 38. Farmer.
Wife Rachel 29.
Children
- Alice Willan, 6
- Elizabeth Willan 1
- Sarah Willan (born at sea)
Main sources for party list
Further reading
William Howard's description of the Ocean's voyage to the Cape appears in Memorials of the British Settlers of South Africa (Grahamstown, R Godlonton, 1844, reprinted in facsimile by the South African Library, Cape Town, 1971).
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